As most of you that read the forums regularly know, I went a bit crazy with learning how to cook a couple of months ago. I bought all new cookware, and a ton of cookbooks spanning numerous topics, from fine-cuisine, to bistro, to classic french and italian, to more specialized books on sauces and amuse-bouches. My intentions as a novice were to acquire books that were heavy in technique and accumulated wisdom, not just a bunch of recipes listed one after the other. The books I've acquired contain just that. I should also note that my main focus has been on french and italian cooking, since those are my two favorite cuisines.
I really can't stress how much more I enjoy life now that I've started cooking for myself. My day-to-day eating habits before I started cooking served a purely function purpose. I'd eat for energy and to make my hunger go away. I'd always regarded cooking as a chore, and so most days I just ate out. Since then I've come to look at cooking as a great joy. I find myself looking forward to time in the kitchen experimenting with new recipes, ingredients and techniques. It was also one of the primary driving forces in my decision to move (bigger kitchen and a dining area). These days, I do almost everything from scratch, and it's been a huge improvement to my quality of life. Before I get in to the reviews, I'd like to again thank those that pushed me in the right direction. They know who they are. As promised, here are the reviews.
Joy of Cooking:
Despite all the rave reviews, I find it quite boring. I also find it annoying that you often have to jump around between recipes because of the way it's organized. It was one of the first books that I purchased, along with Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and I've always picked Mastering when I wanted to cook a meal. In fact, I cooked out of it exclusively for about a month. Regardless, enough has been said on it that I don't need to further expound upon its merits; it does have some. I just think there's better out there today, but in more specialized books.
The most useful chapter is probably the one on heat, which has universal appeal and is something I haven't seen in other books. And it does have some useful information and tips at the beginning of each section, but other than that, I've hardly touched it. My advice is to skip this one, pick-up La Varenne Pratique for technique and then get cookbooks that cover in detail the food you're most interested in.
Mastering the Art of French Cooking (Julia Child):
This isn't for people that are watching their weight and cholesterol levels. It's obviously full of classical french cooking. Everything is done with cream and/or butter. Just the same, I find myself using it quite often. More so, infact, than other books because the recipes are all quite simple, well organized, and very thorough in their explanations.
The organization of this book is terrific and I've learned a great deal because of it. It's organized by chapter based on meats, vegetables, soups, etc. Within each chapter are a series of master recipes, each followed by their variations, which is quite representative of classical french cuisine. It's also got some suggested pairings for a lot of its recipes (both wine and side dishes). The ingredients/tools for a recipe are listed in the order in which you need them and the recipes are divided in to steps along with their ingredients. It makes them very easy to follow while your cooking, which is very important for a novice.
She's quite verbose in describing her recipes, always explaining why you are doing things a certain way. These bits of cooking wisdom accumulated over a decades long career are invaluable. It's got a fair bit of cooking technique in it, from the proper way to blanch vegetables, to the subtleties of making the perfect hollandaise sauce.
Overall, I really like this book and would highly recommend it to beginners that aren't concerned about their weight. ;p
Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking (Marcella Hazan):
This book is the equivalent to Mastering the Art of French Cooking, except it obviously covers italian food. It's very thorough and a pleasure to read. Along with recipes you get little bits of history concerning italian cuisine and how it evolved the way it did.
It's got a wonderful chapter at the beginning entitled fundamentals that covers all of the ingredients used in italian cooking in quite a lot of detail. It covers how to buy, use and store ingredients. It makes special mention of ingredients that you'll want to go to extra trouble to find, such as authentic balsamic vinegar, or Aceto Balsamico Tradizonale di Modena, which is not the stuff you find in supermarkets. It covers truffles, fresh herbs, the various kinds of capers, and all of the italian cheese. The focus is always on quality ingredients, which makes it quite modern for a classical text, as anyone who eats at high-end restaurants know that is the single-minded focuse of chefs these days (and it should be).
Hazan will have you doing most things from scratch, so even a simple risotto can be time-consuming the first time you make it because you have to prepare the broth (bouillon is not acceptable) before you even think about beginning your risotto. Even so, it's well worth the effort. I find myself making a large quantity of broth every couple of weeks and freezing it in smaller packages for when I need it. It makes life pretty easy.
One thing italian cooking demands, and Marcella Haza stresses the importance of, are fresh herbs. The dried variety just don't do it justice. I'm probably going to get an indoor greenhouse so i can keep a constant supply of fresh basil, oregano, etc. It's a pain having to buy them at the supermarket all the time so I think it's a worthwhile investment. One of my most vivid food memories is the bruschetta I had at a restaurant in NYC. Everything was so fresh that the flavors just popped in my mouth.
She's also got a great section on making fresh pasta, both by hand and using a machine. She runs down the resulting differences from each method and also compares to factory-produced dry pasta. She goes in to the importance of pairing the right pasta with a certain sauce. Sometimes it's better to use fresh, and other times dry. She's always stressing quality ingredients though and doesn't recommend store-bought fresh pasta since you can do better making your own at home, and it's really not that difficult, especially by machine.
Overall, this book is very comprehensive. It covers foods from all the different regions of italy and always lets you know their origin. As Hazan explains, Italian food is really a bit of a misnomer, since the culinary traditions of the difference regions of italy are quite distinct and have only started to come together since the end of WW II.
I highly recommend it.
La Varenne Pratique (Anne Willan):
This book is tremendously useful. Although you will find some recipies, it's almost entirely focused on technique. It's got 2500 color photographs showing you just about everything. It's got pictures of all the various types of cheeses, meats, salamis, cuts of meat, vegetables, fish, etc.
It's got detailed photographs that help explain how to butcher your own meat, which will not only save you money, but provide you with the essentials for making your own stocks because as convenient as bouillon is, it's no substitue for a real stock.
It shows you how to properly cut every vegetable in all of the various ways. How to beat egg whites, filet eel, prepare an octopus (the photos for this one almost made me vomit), prepare rack of lamb, and on and on. I can't imagine what's not in the book.
This book is kept right beside my stove. Whenever I do something new, I reach for it and see what it has to say. It's also very good for knife skills, which will only save you time in the kitchen. Iammatt was right in suggesting it. This should be second, if not the the first book that any serious amateur cook purchases.
The next few books I've spent less time with, if only because the recipes are generally more involved and or they're much more limited in focus but more comprehensive, especially Sauces and Amuse-Bouches, which are the two books I've spent the least time with, aside from JoC.
The Thomas Kelller Books (Bouchon and The French Laundry)
Right off the bat I'll say that I love both of these books. Even if you didn't cook, they'd make terrific coffee table books because they're big, beautiful and you can pick them up and read a couple pages at a time. Keller is truely passionate about cooking and he conveys that passion in his writing. I wouldn't suggest them as your first books, but they should be in every dedicated cooks' possession. Keller writes in an inspired and concise manner. Not only is he a great chef, but a great teacher as well.
Even if you find the recipes in these two books a bit too involved for your nightly meals, you'll gain a lot of kitchen wisdom by reading them. You'll find things that are covered nowhere else, little things that make the difference between a good meal and a meal that makes a lasting impression. This is especially important for those times when you decide to cook for others and really want to impress them with your culinary skills. Keller is consitent in two areas, refinement and quality ingredients. If you want to close the gap between your cooking at home and what you get at a high-end restaurant, these two books will go a long way towards helping you accomplish that.
Bouchon:
Bouchon is perhaps the more accessible of the two books. For those that don't know, Bouchon is Keller's french bistro. So in it you've got a ton of great bistro recipes. Some are quite simple, and some are extremely involved.
For example, his recipe for boeuf bourginon spans 3 pages, one of which is almost entirely covered by ingredients, and if you follow his recommendations to the letter, will take anywhere from 1-3 days to make. Two things he doesn't concern himself with are time or expense. He recommends braising the meat with the vegetables, but keeping the in seperate layers in the pot with cheesecloth, and then later discarding the spent vegetables that have transfered most of their flavor to the stew. You then let it sit for 1-3 days, and cook new vegetables to perfection when you're ready to serve the stew. To complete the recipe, you're instructed to remove the beef from the stew and then strain the liquid over the beef into a saute pan so as to remove the impurites and little particles. You then add the glazed vegetables, stick it in the oven for a few minutes, and serve. It should be garnished with fresh parsley and Fleur de sel, of course. In all, this recipe contains 43 ingredients (although some are used twice in different stages).
At the other hand of the spectrum is his roast chicken, which is simplicity itself, although he gives you an amusing little anecdote from his younger days when a chef threw a knife at him because he didn't know how to truss a chicken.
I'll likely be doing a lot of cooking out of Bouchon, although for my day-to-day meals i'll probably skip some of the steps that I would otherwise take if I were cooking for others.
The French Laundry:
Cooking out of The French Laundry will be relegated to weekends due to the complexity of most of the recipes. There are some simple recipes, but overall, this is a book for the ambitious cook. However, this is why I started cooking in the first place. I wanted to indulge myself and others. Cooking from The French Laundry is what it's all about; cooking in season with the best ingredients available for maximum impact.
He is again very thorough and precise in his writing, making very complex dishes approachable, assuming you're willing to take the time to work through them. He doesn't rush, and he expects his readers not to either. With Keller, you're always skimming, straining, and purifying. I should mention that despite the involved recipes in both The French Laundry, and to a lesser extent Bouchon, you'll learn a lot of techniques that will be valuable for cooking less involved meals as well. For instance, he goes in to quite a bit of detail on how to properly glaze vegetables, caramelize onions, etc. Even without the fancy recipes, there's a lot of value in these two books for those willing to sit down and read them. And they're both emminently readable.
Getting back on point, since I've already spoken a lot about Keller in general, rather than going on about The French Laundry, I'll just list some of the recipes to whet your appetites:
CanapÃ
s:
White Truffle Oil-Infused Custards with Black Truffle Ragout
Sabayon of Pearl Tapioca with Malpeque Oysters and Osetra Caviar
Pickled Oysters with English Cucumber "Capellini" and Dill
Lobster ConsommÃ
en GelÃ
e
PurÃ
e of English Pea Soup with White Truffle Oil and Parmesan Crisps
Blini with Roasted Sweet Peppers and Eggplant Caviar
Parmigiano-Reggiano Crisps with Goat Cheese Mousse
First Course:
Heirloom Tomato Tart with Nicoise Olive Tapenade, Mixed Field Greens, and Basil Vinaigrette
Salad of Black Mission Figs with Roasted Sweet Peppers and Shaved Fennel
Sweet Potato Agnolotti with Sage Cream, Brown Butter, and Prosciutto
Carnaroli Risotto with Shaved White Truffles from Alba
Dungeness Crab Salad with Cucumber Jelly, Grainy Mustard Vinaigreet, and FrisÃ
e Lettuce
Meat:
Pan-Roasted Breast of Squab with Swiss Chard, SautÃ
ed Duck Foie Gras, and Oven-Dried Black Figs
Venison Chop with Pan-Roasted Butternut Squash and Braised Shallots
Roasted Sweetbreads with Applewood-Smoked Bacon, Braised Belgian Endive, and Black Truffle Sauce
I think you get the point. There's also chapters on cheese courses, stocks, fish, and desserts. Cooking out of this book will also require some specialized shopping, but it's well worth it, and can be enjoyable on its own. I'd never cook out of this book for large gatherings, but when cooking for two, it can be done, as long as you've got a big enough kitchen and are organized. You'd likely do larger portions and fewer courses though, as you'd want time to sit down and eat
Amuse-bouche (Rick Tramonto)
Anyone that's eaten at a high-end restaurant in the last couple of years knows what they are. They're usually one or two bite affairs that are served before the meal begins or between courses. They typically have only a few ingredients, but are designed to maximize flavor and impact. That is what this book is all about, and it's quite comprehensive on the subject. A lot of these amuse-bouches can be prepared ahead of time, which is always a benefit when cooking for others. It covers every type of amuse-bouch imaginable: soups, pasta, seafood, meats, juices, sorbets, foams, and more. I haven't gotten too in to it, but i've made a couple of them with good results. It's not going to make-up your day-to-day meals, but it's great if you like to cook for other people. They really add interest to a meal, and some of them can be meals on their own if you enlarge the portions, although that sort of defeats the purpose.
Each recipe takes up a page and has relatively few ingredients. He usually gives anecdote regarding it's creation or origin. You'll learn a lot about textures and flavor pairings from this book as he explains the ideas behind the recipes. Actually, I shouldn't say they're all simple as some are quite complex.
It's a good book if this sort of thing interests you. For some it will just be too much trouble.
Culinary Artistry
This is a theory book for those that would eventually like to become independant of recipes and try things on their own. It's got flavor profiles and pairings, lists of what's in season when, chapters on composing a dish and composing a menu. It's got lists, lists, and more lists. All of them are helpful. There is no other place that I'm aware of to get this information in such a concise and useful package. It probably too most chefs years to accumulate this sort of knowledge but it's finally been put in to a concise book. It also constains the theoretical musings of a multitude of reknowned chefs.
This isn't for the beginning cook that just wants recipes to try. It's for those that want to really undertstand food. It's a good book that I have no problems recommending, but it's not for everyone because some people just won't care.
Conclusion:
Well, that's all till next time. I hope this is helpful to some of the guys just graduating and likely moving in to their own places for the first time. I highly recommend learning to cook. It's well worth it and I expect it to pay dividends in more ways than one. ^_^
Other Stuff:
I downloaded a program called Now You're Cooking that greatly simplifies shopping for this type of cooking. It involves a lot of work upfront in terms of entering the recipes, but it saves a tremendous amount of time in the future. You enter your recipes, and then you can pick which recipes you're going to make for each day of the the week and it will auto-generate your shopping lists. This way you can buy exactly what you need. It only becomes more useful as you build-up your list of recipes.
I really can't stress how much more I enjoy life now that I've started cooking for myself. My day-to-day eating habits before I started cooking served a purely function purpose. I'd eat for energy and to make my hunger go away. I'd always regarded cooking as a chore, and so most days I just ate out. Since then I've come to look at cooking as a great joy. I find myself looking forward to time in the kitchen experimenting with new recipes, ingredients and techniques. It was also one of the primary driving forces in my decision to move (bigger kitchen and a dining area). These days, I do almost everything from scratch, and it's been a huge improvement to my quality of life. Before I get in to the reviews, I'd like to again thank those that pushed me in the right direction. They know who they are. As promised, here are the reviews.
Joy of Cooking:
Despite all the rave reviews, I find it quite boring. I also find it annoying that you often have to jump around between recipes because of the way it's organized. It was one of the first books that I purchased, along with Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and I've always picked Mastering when I wanted to cook a meal. In fact, I cooked out of it exclusively for about a month. Regardless, enough has been said on it that I don't need to further expound upon its merits; it does have some. I just think there's better out there today, but in more specialized books.
The most useful chapter is probably the one on heat, which has universal appeal and is something I haven't seen in other books. And it does have some useful information and tips at the beginning of each section, but other than that, I've hardly touched it. My advice is to skip this one, pick-up La Varenne Pratique for technique and then get cookbooks that cover in detail the food you're most interested in.
Mastering the Art of French Cooking (Julia Child):
This isn't for people that are watching their weight and cholesterol levels. It's obviously full of classical french cooking. Everything is done with cream and/or butter. Just the same, I find myself using it quite often. More so, infact, than other books because the recipes are all quite simple, well organized, and very thorough in their explanations.
The organization of this book is terrific and I've learned a great deal because of it. It's organized by chapter based on meats, vegetables, soups, etc. Within each chapter are a series of master recipes, each followed by their variations, which is quite representative of classical french cuisine. It's also got some suggested pairings for a lot of its recipes (both wine and side dishes). The ingredients/tools for a recipe are listed in the order in which you need them and the recipes are divided in to steps along with their ingredients. It makes them very easy to follow while your cooking, which is very important for a novice.
She's quite verbose in describing her recipes, always explaining why you are doing things a certain way. These bits of cooking wisdom accumulated over a decades long career are invaluable. It's got a fair bit of cooking technique in it, from the proper way to blanch vegetables, to the subtleties of making the perfect hollandaise sauce.
Overall, I really like this book and would highly recommend it to beginners that aren't concerned about their weight. ;p
Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking (Marcella Hazan):
This book is the equivalent to Mastering the Art of French Cooking, except it obviously covers italian food. It's very thorough and a pleasure to read. Along with recipes you get little bits of history concerning italian cuisine and how it evolved the way it did.
It's got a wonderful chapter at the beginning entitled fundamentals that covers all of the ingredients used in italian cooking in quite a lot of detail. It covers how to buy, use and store ingredients. It makes special mention of ingredients that you'll want to go to extra trouble to find, such as authentic balsamic vinegar, or Aceto Balsamico Tradizonale di Modena, which is not the stuff you find in supermarkets. It covers truffles, fresh herbs, the various kinds of capers, and all of the italian cheese. The focus is always on quality ingredients, which makes it quite modern for a classical text, as anyone who eats at high-end restaurants know that is the single-minded focuse of chefs these days (and it should be).
Hazan will have you doing most things from scratch, so even a simple risotto can be time-consuming the first time you make it because you have to prepare the broth (bouillon is not acceptable) before you even think about beginning your risotto. Even so, it's well worth the effort. I find myself making a large quantity of broth every couple of weeks and freezing it in smaller packages for when I need it. It makes life pretty easy.
One thing italian cooking demands, and Marcella Haza stresses the importance of, are fresh herbs. The dried variety just don't do it justice. I'm probably going to get an indoor greenhouse so i can keep a constant supply of fresh basil, oregano, etc. It's a pain having to buy them at the supermarket all the time so I think it's a worthwhile investment. One of my most vivid food memories is the bruschetta I had at a restaurant in NYC. Everything was so fresh that the flavors just popped in my mouth.
She's also got a great section on making fresh pasta, both by hand and using a machine. She runs down the resulting differences from each method and also compares to factory-produced dry pasta. She goes in to the importance of pairing the right pasta with a certain sauce. Sometimes it's better to use fresh, and other times dry. She's always stressing quality ingredients though and doesn't recommend store-bought fresh pasta since you can do better making your own at home, and it's really not that difficult, especially by machine.
Overall, this book is very comprehensive. It covers foods from all the different regions of italy and always lets you know their origin. As Hazan explains, Italian food is really a bit of a misnomer, since the culinary traditions of the difference regions of italy are quite distinct and have only started to come together since the end of WW II.
I highly recommend it.
La Varenne Pratique (Anne Willan):
This book is tremendously useful. Although you will find some recipies, it's almost entirely focused on technique. It's got 2500 color photographs showing you just about everything. It's got pictures of all the various types of cheeses, meats, salamis, cuts of meat, vegetables, fish, etc.
It's got detailed photographs that help explain how to butcher your own meat, which will not only save you money, but provide you with the essentials for making your own stocks because as convenient as bouillon is, it's no substitue for a real stock.
It shows you how to properly cut every vegetable in all of the various ways. How to beat egg whites, filet eel, prepare an octopus (the photos for this one almost made me vomit), prepare rack of lamb, and on and on. I can't imagine what's not in the book.
This book is kept right beside my stove. Whenever I do something new, I reach for it and see what it has to say. It's also very good for knife skills, which will only save you time in the kitchen. Iammatt was right in suggesting it. This should be second, if not the the first book that any serious amateur cook purchases.
The next few books I've spent less time with, if only because the recipes are generally more involved and or they're much more limited in focus but more comprehensive, especially Sauces and Amuse-Bouches, which are the two books I've spent the least time with, aside from JoC.
The Thomas Kelller Books (Bouchon and The French Laundry)
Right off the bat I'll say that I love both of these books. Even if you didn't cook, they'd make terrific coffee table books because they're big, beautiful and you can pick them up and read a couple pages at a time. Keller is truely passionate about cooking and he conveys that passion in his writing. I wouldn't suggest them as your first books, but they should be in every dedicated cooks' possession. Keller writes in an inspired and concise manner. Not only is he a great chef, but a great teacher as well.
Even if you find the recipes in these two books a bit too involved for your nightly meals, you'll gain a lot of kitchen wisdom by reading them. You'll find things that are covered nowhere else, little things that make the difference between a good meal and a meal that makes a lasting impression. This is especially important for those times when you decide to cook for others and really want to impress them with your culinary skills. Keller is consitent in two areas, refinement and quality ingredients. If you want to close the gap between your cooking at home and what you get at a high-end restaurant, these two books will go a long way towards helping you accomplish that.
Bouchon:
Bouchon is perhaps the more accessible of the two books. For those that don't know, Bouchon is Keller's french bistro. So in it you've got a ton of great bistro recipes. Some are quite simple, and some are extremely involved.
For example, his recipe for boeuf bourginon spans 3 pages, one of which is almost entirely covered by ingredients, and if you follow his recommendations to the letter, will take anywhere from 1-3 days to make. Two things he doesn't concern himself with are time or expense. He recommends braising the meat with the vegetables, but keeping the in seperate layers in the pot with cheesecloth, and then later discarding the spent vegetables that have transfered most of their flavor to the stew. You then let it sit for 1-3 days, and cook new vegetables to perfection when you're ready to serve the stew. To complete the recipe, you're instructed to remove the beef from the stew and then strain the liquid over the beef into a saute pan so as to remove the impurites and little particles. You then add the glazed vegetables, stick it in the oven for a few minutes, and serve. It should be garnished with fresh parsley and Fleur de sel, of course. In all, this recipe contains 43 ingredients (although some are used twice in different stages).
At the other hand of the spectrum is his roast chicken, which is simplicity itself, although he gives you an amusing little anecdote from his younger days when a chef threw a knife at him because he didn't know how to truss a chicken.
I'll likely be doing a lot of cooking out of Bouchon, although for my day-to-day meals i'll probably skip some of the steps that I would otherwise take if I were cooking for others.
The French Laundry:
Cooking out of The French Laundry will be relegated to weekends due to the complexity of most of the recipes. There are some simple recipes, but overall, this is a book for the ambitious cook. However, this is why I started cooking in the first place. I wanted to indulge myself and others. Cooking from The French Laundry is what it's all about; cooking in season with the best ingredients available for maximum impact.
He is again very thorough and precise in his writing, making very complex dishes approachable, assuming you're willing to take the time to work through them. He doesn't rush, and he expects his readers not to either. With Keller, you're always skimming, straining, and purifying. I should mention that despite the involved recipes in both The French Laundry, and to a lesser extent Bouchon, you'll learn a lot of techniques that will be valuable for cooking less involved meals as well. For instance, he goes in to quite a bit of detail on how to properly glaze vegetables, caramelize onions, etc. Even without the fancy recipes, there's a lot of value in these two books for those willing to sit down and read them. And they're both emminently readable.
Getting back on point, since I've already spoken a lot about Keller in general, rather than going on about The French Laundry, I'll just list some of the recipes to whet your appetites:
CanapÃ
White Truffle Oil-Infused Custards with Black Truffle Ragout
Sabayon of Pearl Tapioca with Malpeque Oysters and Osetra Caviar
Pickled Oysters with English Cucumber "Capellini" and Dill
Lobster ConsommÃ
PurÃ
Blini with Roasted Sweet Peppers and Eggplant Caviar
Parmigiano-Reggiano Crisps with Goat Cheese Mousse
First Course:
Heirloom Tomato Tart with Nicoise Olive Tapenade, Mixed Field Greens, and Basil Vinaigrette
Salad of Black Mission Figs with Roasted Sweet Peppers and Shaved Fennel
Sweet Potato Agnolotti with Sage Cream, Brown Butter, and Prosciutto
Carnaroli Risotto with Shaved White Truffles from Alba
Dungeness Crab Salad with Cucumber Jelly, Grainy Mustard Vinaigreet, and FrisÃ
Meat:
Pan-Roasted Breast of Squab with Swiss Chard, SautÃ
Venison Chop with Pan-Roasted Butternut Squash and Braised Shallots
Roasted Sweetbreads with Applewood-Smoked Bacon, Braised Belgian Endive, and Black Truffle Sauce
I think you get the point. There's also chapters on cheese courses, stocks, fish, and desserts. Cooking out of this book will also require some specialized shopping, but it's well worth it, and can be enjoyable on its own. I'd never cook out of this book for large gatherings, but when cooking for two, it can be done, as long as you've got a big enough kitchen and are organized. You'd likely do larger portions and fewer courses though, as you'd want time to sit down and eat
Amuse-bouche (Rick Tramonto)
Anyone that's eaten at a high-end restaurant in the last couple of years knows what they are. They're usually one or two bite affairs that are served before the meal begins or between courses. They typically have only a few ingredients, but are designed to maximize flavor and impact. That is what this book is all about, and it's quite comprehensive on the subject. A lot of these amuse-bouches can be prepared ahead of time, which is always a benefit when cooking for others. It covers every type of amuse-bouch imaginable: soups, pasta, seafood, meats, juices, sorbets, foams, and more. I haven't gotten too in to it, but i've made a couple of them with good results. It's not going to make-up your day-to-day meals, but it's great if you like to cook for other people. They really add interest to a meal, and some of them can be meals on their own if you enlarge the portions, although that sort of defeats the purpose.
Each recipe takes up a page and has relatively few ingredients. He usually gives anecdote regarding it's creation or origin. You'll learn a lot about textures and flavor pairings from this book as he explains the ideas behind the recipes. Actually, I shouldn't say they're all simple as some are quite complex.
It's a good book if this sort of thing interests you. For some it will just be too much trouble.
Culinary Artistry
This is a theory book for those that would eventually like to become independant of recipes and try things on their own. It's got flavor profiles and pairings, lists of what's in season when, chapters on composing a dish and composing a menu. It's got lists, lists, and more lists. All of them are helpful. There is no other place that I'm aware of to get this information in such a concise and useful package. It probably too most chefs years to accumulate this sort of knowledge but it's finally been put in to a concise book. It also constains the theoretical musings of a multitude of reknowned chefs.
This isn't for the beginning cook that just wants recipes to try. It's for those that want to really undertstand food. It's a good book that I have no problems recommending, but it's not for everyone because some people just won't care.
Conclusion:
Well, that's all till next time. I hope this is helpful to some of the guys just graduating and likely moving in to their own places for the first time. I highly recommend learning to cook. It's well worth it and I expect it to pay dividends in more ways than one. ^_^
Other Stuff:
I downloaded a program called Now You're Cooking that greatly simplifies shopping for this type of cooking. It involves a lot of work upfront in terms of entering the recipes, but it saves a tremendous amount of time in the future. You enter your recipes, and then you can pick which recipes you're going to make for each day of the the week and it will auto-generate your shopping lists. This way you can buy exactly what you need. It only becomes more useful as you build-up your list of recipes.
